Attorney for A-Team candidate plans appeal

A Monmouth County Superior Court judge has ruled that 252 rejected vote by mail ballots in the Asbury Park city council election should not be opened.

The number of ballots at issue were enough to change the election results.

Daniel Harris III, [right] an unsuccessful candidate on the A-Team slate, filed the legal challenge to the May 14 election. His A-Team running mates Jim Keady and Duanne Small were 178 votes away from unseating Mayor Myra Campbell and Deputy Mayor Susan Henderson, the two lowest vote-getters who won seats on the five-member city council.

Harris’s attorney, Kristie Howard of Montclair, said Harris will appeal the decision.

“Definitely. Immediately,” she said.

The 252 ballots subject to the ruling today by Judge Dennis O’Brien were disqualified by the Monmouth County Board of Elections. The board had ruled that handwriting on the applications for the ballots indicated other individuals provided assistance to the voter in filling out the applications.

State law requires that those giving assistance be properly disclosed on the application. The Board of Elections rejected the 252 ballots for not meeting that requirement.

“To get a ballot, you have to follow a procedure. That didn’t happen here,” O’Brien said in his ruling which he read in his courtroom.

Harris expressed dissatisfaction with the decision after the proceedings.

“Poor people have been disenfranchised,” he said of the judge’s ruling.

“The Board of Elections was already prejudiced against our campaign based on stuff they read in the paper,” Harris said.

An additional 68 ballots were disallowed for issues involving signature deficiencies. The judge did not rule on those ballots today. The 68 are not enough to change the outcome for the A-Team candidates.